Ou Guoping is one of the first batch of impoverished students to have benefited from Guangdong Province's Intelligence Poverty Reduction Project. He graduated from a vocational institute and got a job at a power plant in June 2005. Today, Ou's monthly salary is about 3,000 yuan (US$370).

In his own words, he said: "I have never seen so much money!"

Ou is 20 years old. He and his family live in a rural area in Guangdong Province. His three younger sisters are still in school. Ou recalls that he had planned to become a migrant worker in the city after graduating from junior middle school. Fortunately for him and his family, he qualified for and was chosen to join the first batch of needy students under the Intelligence Poverty Reduction Project.

The 2,000 yuan that he gives his parents each month is enough for their daily expenses and to put his three sisters through school.

Helping people help themselves

It was in 1998 that the local government first set up the Intelligence Poverty Reduction Project, a program to provide vocational training to 5,000 poor rural students every year.

By the end of July 2005, all of the project's first batch of students had graduated and found jobs. About 70 percent of them work in major cities such as Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Zhongshan, Shunde; 20 percent work in local enterprises; and a few work outside Guangdong or are pursuing higher education. They earn salaries of between 1,000 yuan and 3,500 yuan a month, averaging about 1,300 yuan a month.

The schools that participate in the project are prestigious institutions in their own right. According to Feng Yuanwei, president of Guangdong Provincial Building Materials Skilled Workers' School, the courses on offer to the project's beneficiaries were carefully chosen to ensure that students would find it easier to land jobs after graduation.

Feng's school itself enrolled 200 poor rural students in 2002 all of whom have subsequently found employment.

Lu Rongjie, a beneficiary of the project, entered Qingyuan Skilled Workers' School in 1998. The school waived his tuition and accommodation fees, and gave him a daily allowance. In 2000, armed with a reference from the school, Lu found work with a Japanese company.

Lu excelled at the company, so much so that they sent him to Japan for half a year's training. When he returned to China, he was made team leader. Today, Lu earns about 3,000 yuan a month. Later his parents sent their younger son to the same school. Both brothers now work with the same Japanese company.

Lu's parents are well taken care of now in their old age. Lu has bought an apartment in Guangzhou, and plans to settle there with his parents in the near future.

Still a long way to go

Despite the great work that the project is doing to help students from impoverished families, there is only so much that the project can do. The project is only able to help 5,000 students a year, but there are more than 4 million poverty-stricken people in the province alone. More than a hundred thousand poor students have no access to financial aid.

According to an official from the Guangdong Provincial Labor & Social Security Bureau, a person living in poverty in Guangdong has an average annual income of 1,500 yuan or less. Many badly want to learn a vocational skill that will allow them to earn themselves a decent living. But, as luck would have it, not all are selected for financial aid under the project.

(China.org.cn by Wang Sining September 4, 2005)